Security systems and devices to implement such systems have been used for quite some time because it is recognized that small appliances are expensive and that their theft or unauthorized removal is a very expensive cost associated with the operation of rental properties. With today's larceny of other equipments such as copiers, dictating machines, typewriters and even computers, some means of preventing the unauthorized removal of these appliances is also desirable. Prior art systems required, of course, that the outlets be modified or that the appliance be modified in such a way that alarms were built into the units or built into the house wiring, and low voltage and high voltage wiring were mixed in the same box and specialized wiring had to be instituted in order to effectuate such systems.
The present system obviates any need to modify the appliance or the need to re-wire or alter the standard electrical outlets that are supplied with modern building wiring.
The present invention contemplates the fabrication of a little device which is physically thin, slips over the prongs of the electrical plug (male plug) of any appliance before it is plugged into the electrical outlet. Once the unit is installed it sets itself in such a manner that when the appliance is unplugged the circuit breaker is blown. At the fuse box where the circuit breaker is located each circuit breaker is wired to an alarm such that when one of the circuit breakers blows an alarm will go off indicating to the owners that someone is attempting to remove an appliance. The examination of the circuit breakers at the fuse panel will disclose which of the rooms where an unauthorized removal of an appliance is being attempted.
In many elaborate motel arrangements with hundreds of rooms that are rented or very large hotels it is possible for the manager or desk clerk to know when a circuit breaker has blown. For a large system each of the circuit breakers will be collected together and a telemetric signal will be sent to the central office indicating when and where a circuit breaker has blown. Such a system would not distinguish whether the circuit breaker has blown as the result of the unauthorized removal of the appliance or that there had been some other electrical difficulty. The desk clerk would have to dispatch somebody to the scene in order to investigate as quickly as possible which has occurred and would have the excuse that he was checking out an electrical problem.